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Bands publicly having a dig at other bands - crap or not crap?

For me it's a complex ethical cookie. I'm not sure where exactly I stand on this. I'm in a band which is pretty damn un-noteworthy but about well known enough to have done a few interviews for webzines and magazines, and in the past I've always made it a rule to refrain from bitching about specific bands. Goddamn I love to bitch about bands, and privately, amongst friends, there ain't noone who can stop me from laying it down as it is from The Bible According to Simmo, which is of course the Exemplary Text on All That Is Crap and Not Crap in Music. But I feel differently when it comes to a public forum. Something tells me it's just a bit cunty to go picking bands out as examples of shitness.

I admit I'm not totally consistent on this. I sometimes make some crude and probably highly unsatisfactory distinction between Major Label bands and Independent bands, or bands who are money whores and bands who are doing it for the kids. I'd probably happily slag off the former in a public forum, but not the latter. Maybe it's a tribal thing.

So here's the thing: am I just being plain hypocritical? I wouldn't feel comfortable lying if someone posed me a direct question (what do you think of band X?) If i felt they really sucked I'd want to say it. Is this public/private distinction bullshit? Two-faced hypocrisy? Or just decent manners?

So, some random waffle designed to vaguely stimulate debate. Allez! Debate my friends!

Constructive criticism, and allowing for taste, is fine. Maybe.

Danger Adventure have too many keyboards, and Red Swan are a bunch of drunkards.

Expressing your opinion is not crap.

perfected by pavement

Three thoughts.

1. I think it's almost impossible to do it (bitch about other bands in the press) without appearing lame. If member of band Y doesn't like band X then that's cool, but why waste time talking about it? Unless member of band Y is subjected to enforced listening sessions of band X's music on a weekly basis, I don't see why member of band Y would be wasting his energies in bitching.

2. In total opposition of the above view, we all like to bitch about how shitty band X is and that accepted, it is arguably hypocritical to pretend otherwise in 'public'.

3. For me it often comes down to my old Sports Band/Band Olympics(tm) thing. More often than not, bitching arises from bands vying for the bronze medal in the same event; band X and Y are both competing in the Slint Band category, and thus (for the sake of sports psychology and a competitive edge) must snarl (boxer-like) at each other on occasion...

In summation:

I like to hear what people have got to say about other bands. Come on, out with it.

DrAwkward wrote:Danger Adventure have too many keyboards, and Red Swan are a bunch of drunkards.

true true, Tom from Red Swan has a demon baby he keeps in his closet and he forces it to have sex with a moose every night...

faiz from Danger Adventure has a horrible addiction to starbucks coffee latte enima's...

NOT CRAP, fling shit at will...

shagboy wrote:perfected by pavement

Example?

Chapter Two wrote:

shagboy wrote:perfected by pavement

Example?

I would prefer the concept of perfecting it ON Pavement, as in, "let's all pile on that crap-assed slack-rock band."